Our Story, Part 5

     Our first date to Perkins Diner was on June 9th.  The next week was a whirlwind of dates and working, working and dates.  After so much time, the details are a bit hazy, but I'll try to piece together the details I can muster.
     Our second date was the next day, Saturday.  We both worked again, but were able to get off a bit earlier for some reason.  He asked me if I'd like to accompany him to the new "Mission Impossible 2" movie with Tom Cruise in it.  What a rookie.  Didn't he know this girl preferred Romantic Comedies??  I agreed to go with him anyway, and he agreed to drive my car, a Deep Blue Toyota Celica with crazy low bucket seats.  We went to the Edwards 21 theater on Cole and Overland, which was the premier hangout spot for entertainment way back then.  We found a parking spot and he came around the car to open my door for me.  When he took my hand to help me out of the bucket seat, he never let go again.  He was so nervous to be holding my hand though, that he couldn't just HOLD my hand, but rather nervously switched back and forth from moving his hand like a wriggly snake, to intertwining his fingers with mine.  This went on for the first 15 minutes of the movie until I gently grabbed his hand and held it still.  We still chuckle about that first hand-holding event.  I totally thought it was cute that he was so nervous.  After the movie, he drove me back to my house and we sat out front in my car talking.  My obsession CD of the moment was the soundtrack to the movie "Notting Hill".  It was full of sappy yet upbeat love songs and it was a nice background to our conversation.  The song "When You Say Nothing At All" performed by Ronan Keating came on, and there was a lull in the conversation.  He began to do the nervous hand-holding thing again, and looked me in the eyes and asked "Would you mind if I kissed you right now?"  I smiled and leaned in.  We kissed and the crescendo of the song seemed to hit right at the moment he started to pull away.  Apparently I leaned toward him with my eyes closed and breathily said "Keep".  He must have obliged, but he still teases me to this day about my cheesy response to our first kiss.  I guess he needed something to counter the hand holding episodes!
     Sunday, he took me to meet his parents.  I should have been surprised he wanted me to meet them on our 3rd date, but I just really wanted to meet this adorable 2-year old brother that his parents adopted while he was on his mission that I'd heard so much about.  They had also just bought a house in a brand new subdivision in Kuna, ID which he had yet to see, so we went for dinner.  His mom is quite the cook, but because they had just moved in a few days before, she served hot dogs and frozen mixed vegetables with lima beans in it.  She was mortified that that was my first meal to share with them.    
     Our next few dates were squeezed into time slots wherever we could find them.  We walked around downtown Boise, window shopping and chatting, and for another we swam in his apartment complex pool between shifts at the restaurant.  When I arrived at his apartment that day, I totally caught him doing push-ups so that he could look buff shirtless.  I wasn't complaining!
     Later that whirlwind week, I decided it was my turn to plan one of our dates, so I packed us a picnic lunch complete with a wicker basket and gingham napkins, and took him to the Rose Garden at Julia Davis park.  We enjoyed a delicious lunch with great conversation and lots of romance.  As we were leaving, within a few feet of the car, he grabbed me around the waist and pulled me in for a hug.  And then he said it.  Three little words that caught me totally off guard.
     "I love you."
     My mind kind of exploded in that moment.  I loved that he said it.  I hated that I wanted to say it back but couldn't bring myself to say it.  So I dumbly just stood there hugging him.
     After a minute, "So, uh, ..........are you going to say anything?" he asked.
     Crickets.
     I could tell he'd been working up to that moment, and I was blowing it.  My logical brain was waging war with my lovesick heart.  What do I say?!? I just couldn't bring myself to admit that every fiber of me loved him.  I knew that was crazy since I'd only been going out with him less than a week.  His hug started to loosen.  Quick. Say something. Anything!

     "I'm...uh...kicked in the shins for you."
     Crickets from him...and then, "What in the world does that mean?!?!"
     I fumbled for an explanation that it was somewhere between like and love.  That I just couldn't be in love because everything was going so quickly.  I begged him not to give up on me.  He nervously accepted that, and we had an awkward drive home trying to act like our conversation hadn't gone so terribly.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4